Typically, a party having printing needs must either fulfill the printing needs on their own or contract with a print provider offering printing services which can fulfill the printing needs. Before contracting with a print provider, however, a customer must identify which print providers offer specific printing services which fulfill the printing needs. Identifying which print providers of a myriad of available print providers provide specific printing services is a tedious task. More specifically, the customer must contact each print provider individually, either in person or telephonically, to identify which print providers provide specific printing services.
While identifying which print providers provide specific printing services, the customer also must identify which print providers provide specific printing services within desired or necessary parameters. The customer may require, for example, that a print job be completed and delivered within a certain time frame or that a print job be completed for less than a specific price. Thus, a customer may need to contact several print providers individually to identify which print providers provide specific printing services within desired or necessary parameters.
Unfortunately, contacting several print providers individually to identify which print providers provide specific printing services within desired or necessary parameters is often ineffective and inefficient. After contacting several print providers, for example, the customer may find that the print providers do not provide the specific printing services or that the print providers do not provide the specific printing services within the desired or necessary parameters. Thus, efforts of the customer may identify few or no print providers capable of fulfilling the print job.
Accordingly, a need exists for efficiently and effectively brokering a print job between a customer and a plurality of print providers. More specifically, a need exists for uniting a customer having printing needs with print providers providing print services which can fulfill the printing needs.